London

Mistakes, I’ve made a few, but then again, too many not to mention…
With apologies to Ol’ Blue Eyes and Paul Anka, I was reminded the other week of one the many both major and minor cock-ups that have littered my media career to date.

The sixth media circus that is the Off Message podcast is with Michael O'Keeffe, CEO at the regulator of all Irish broadcasting - though thankfully not podcasts...not yet, anyway - the BAI, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.
During our chat Michael revealed the BAI's origins in Ireland's murky pirate radio past and its planned next move into regulating parts of the online media wild west; the type of complaints they regularly get about programmes; where they get their funding and how some would rather not pay up; their wooing of London's international broadcasters pre-Brexit; the growing Irish appetite for podcasts - *applauds*; their take on diversity and plurality in Ireland's broadcast media; and more.

The fourth media-mad Off Message podcast is with the ubiquitous Norah Casey who has worked both here in Ireland and in the UK across all sectors in the media.
She's run and owned numerous publishing ventures, she's presented her own radio and television programmes, she's managed a handful of online businesses and written a book of her hectic life to date.
In it the podcast Norah reveals the tortuous stories behind her hugely emotional live Late Late Show and Marian Finucane appearances in which she first told the highly charged stories of her second husband's death and the domestic abuse she suffered for nine years at the hands of her first; her recently-discovered insatiable love of podcasts; her real fear that she's now become a news junkie; the trauma of selling most of her cherished magazine titles late last year; her love-hate relationship with social media; and lots more.

Dealing with the musical chairs of changing commissioning faces is part and parcel of being a freelancer pitching ideas in the media.
Here in Ireland such cross-network, -station, -site or -publication movement is relatively rare but in bigger media markets it’s so frequent as to be expected.
When it happens it has both its pros and cons.

Christmas may well be the season for giving but in the particularly unforgiving media business rejection happens all year round; and the festive season is no exception.
Dealing with all this negativity successfully is vital if you want to stay the pace.

The debut Off Message podcast, featuring the media-related wit and wisdom of RTÉ 2fm's music-and-movie-mad Dave Fanning.
Over the course of our chat Dave reminisces about his almost completely accidental career journey; how his RTÉ career hasn't exactly gone to plan; whether he'd ever ask U2 the hard questions; his unconventional advice for succeeding in the media world, and at a typical Fanning rate of knots, of course much, much more.

The other day I had the most unexpected – and more than a little frightening – thought: I wondered if coming home was a mistake.
I spent 11 years in London, returning to Dublin in 2009 when RTÉ commissioned a TV idea I'd had.
It got me thinking about the pros and cons of my return.

When freelancing work dries up (or at least goes eerily quiet for a while) you’re forced to get your pitching mojo back on.
Which is where I’m at right now, partially because of Brexit, surprisingly enough.
And whatever the outcomes it’s the waiting that kills you.

As I left RTÉ last week at the end of another long run there I was very aware that I hadn’t a gig lined up to go to anywhere else anytime soon.
Oddly I wasn't too worried, which as a freelancer is a very weird feeling.